E46 interior rerview mirror on E30?

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twenty
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Post Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:38 pm

Hi,

Looking at the ETK, it seems that E46 interior mirrors should be a straight fit into an E30. I like the design of the E46 mirror as it's slimmer and also the possibility of retrofitting auto-dimming is enticing.
They are also plentiful and cheap so maybe I should take the £8 hit and get one from eBay for the team :)

Thanks.
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martauto
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Post Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:33 pm

twenty wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:38 pm
Hi,

Looking at the ETK, it seems that E46 interior mirrors should be a straight fit into an E30. I like the design of the E46 mirror as it's slimmer and also the possibility of retrofitting auto-dimming is enticing.
They are also plentiful and cheap so maybe I should take the £8 hit and get one from eBay for the team :)

Thanks.
Let me have a look. I have both cars but I dont think they will without some "adjustments" .
Great attitude mate as well :clap: :clap:

Mart.
Only the E46 cab left now.
Just got too old.
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martauto
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Post Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:41 pm

Her indoors has just stolen my e46 but on reflection it`s a cab so will this be different ?
Try and throw some pics up please as I am really interested in this as I love the mirror in the cab and if it "fits" in an e30 then what a find.

Mart.
Only the E46 cab left now.
Just got too old.
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flybynite
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Post Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:40 pm

twenty wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:38 pm
Looking at the ETK, it seems that E46 interior mirrors should be a straight fit into an E30. I like the design of the E46 mirror as it's slimmer and also the possibility of retrofitting auto-dimming is enticing.
They are also plentiful and cheap so maybe I should take the £8 hit and get one from eBay for the team :)
Thanks.
Looking at mine, the E46 mirror is attached to a largish box that is glued to the windscreen, you could glue it to an e30 windscreen I guess. The auto dimming mirror has power to it that runs into the box.

I can't see the mirror itself fitting on the 'ball' of an E30 arm because of the wire that needs to run to it unless you use and e30 maplight arm
Rear View Mirror.jpg
Bmw-E46-Interior-Rear-View-Auto-Dimming-Mirror-Homelink.jpg
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twenty
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Post Tue Aug 31, 2021 8:14 pm

Thanks for the replies chaps. Much appreciated. I searched for a few photos myself and I believe the plastic shroud is for hiding the wires but as you can see the bit that attaches to the windscreen looks very much like the E30 mirror, hence my curiosity. I believe E39 mirrors are also compatible.

Here are a couple of photos from eBay listings:
B93EFF03-7C1D-44CF-99B8-0D422AE6090D.jpeg
1172CDA4-2BC1-4704-B80B-BDBDA4D54D5D.jpeg
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Cloggy Saint
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Post Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:25 pm

martauto wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:41 pm
Her indoors has just stolen my e46 but on reflection it`s a cab so will this be different ?
Try and throw some pics up please as I am really interested in this as I love the mirror in the cab and if it "fits" in an e30 then what a find.

Mart.
You 'love' a rear-view mirror? :?
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twenty
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Post Wed Sep 01, 2021 11:42 am

Right - I'm now convinced that this will work.
As you can see from http://bmwfans.info/parts-catalog/51318145530, the E30 rear view mirror base plate is shared amongst many BMW models, including F series cars like the X5.
Time to find the best looking mirror of them all :)
twenty
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Post Wed Sep 01, 2021 11:54 am

flybynite wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:40 pm
twenty wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:38 pm
Looking at the ETK, it seems that E46 interior mirrors should be a straight fit into an E30. I like the design of the E46 mirror as it's slimmer and also the possibility of retrofitting auto-dimming is enticing.
They are also plentiful and cheap so maybe I should take the £8 hit and get one from eBay for the team :)
Thanks.
Looking at mine, the E46 mirror is attached to a largish box that is glued to the windscreen, you could glue it to an e30 windscreen I guess. The auto dimming mirror has power to it that runs into the box.

I can't see the mirror itself fitting on the 'ball' of an E30 arm because of the wire that needs to run to it unless you use and e30 maplight arm
Rear View Mirror.jpg
Bmw-E46-Interior-Rear-View-Auto-Dimming-Mirror-Homelink.jpg
The trick is to use the whole mirror with arm from E46 or similar cars (see my latest post above) to the E30 screen's base.
The main challenge here is given the number of different mirrors that are compatible, finding the one that is closest to the E30's arm length and angle.

Having said that, I just realized that there's a slight gap in my plan - namely, all the mirror's I've come across so far are self dimming - which means if I don't do the self dimming wiring from the start, there's no way for me to manually dim the mirror (unless I'm missing something).
onthames
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Post Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:04 pm

Slightly off topic but I have a e30 map light mirror version coming soon. Does anyone know the wiring for that?
twenty
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Post Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:25 pm

onthames wrote:
Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:04 pm
Slightly off topic but I have a e30 map light mirror version coming soon. Does anyone know the wiring for that?
https://www.e30zone.net/e30wiki/index.p ... ht_Upgrade